October 29, 2003

Friends of mine in HK have been urging me to cover what they say is a monumental scandal encompassing fraud, conspiracy, kickbacks, cronyism, lying to the public and general shittines on the part of the HK government and the American Chamber of Commerce in HK. And it’s all about a friggin’ rock concert called Harbourfest!

I was just about to cut and paste today’s article from the SCMP when I noticed that Conrad beat me to it. Check out the story — it is larger than life and will probably make its way into the western media soon. If Mike Rowse’s and Jim Thompson’s heads don’t roll, HK will lose all credibility in my book.

Rowse, who one of my friends describes as the closest thing he’s ever seen to an albino monkey, writes a weepy letter in today’s WSJ (I only have the print version) about the “good intentions” behind Harbourfest, and reluctantly admits that while “teething problems have emerged,” his heart was in the right place. One look at the letter and I knew it had PR Agency all over it.

About

A peculiar hybrid of personal journal, dilettantish punditry, pseudo-philosophy and much more, from an Accidental Expat who has made his way from Hong Kong to Beijing to Taipei and finally back to Beijing for reasons that are still not entirely clear to him…